1. Field of the Invention
Despite all efforts to curb America's love affair with the motor vehicle, the popularity of cars and, more recently, trucks has soared. Whether it be for pleasure or business, the preferred mode of transportation is by motor vehicle.
The transportation of material overland by truck is big business. Once a relatively benign daytime business, truckers now travel 24/7 in order to meet schedules and to get the most out of their motoring dollar. While the nation has an incomparable interstate system of roads and highways, in many parts of the country the system is aging and in various states of disrepair. Even in newer, well maintained venues, litter of all shapes and sizes poses a problem for those who use the highways, not only as to tires and windshields, but also to lighting systems, e.g., fog lights and driving lights, which, in order to optimize their effectiveness, are disposed relatively low to the ground. By virtue of their position, however, a variety of road hazards threaten the utility of such lighting systems.
2. Overview of the Prior Art
The present invention, while not the first to recognize the problems attendant such lighting systems, is perhaps one of the first to face squarely those myriad problems and offer a simple, yet affordable, alternative to systems currently marketed.
Retractable lighting of sorts goes back at least to 1937 when it first became available on aircraft. Landing lights were retracted into the wings in order to minimize drag, and Grimes U.S. Pat. No. 2,244,535 is an of such a system. In a later effort, Grimes, in his U.S. Pat. No. 2,859,331 taught a system for blimps.
In the mid 80's, and extending into the early 90's, various inventors, in recognition of the increasing popularity of trucks generally, and four wheel drive vehicles in particular, concentrated on the market for lighting bars which mounted above the roof of the cab. While originally the province of law enforcement, hunters and off road enthusiasts quickly recognized the value of such lighting bars, both from a utilitarian standpoint as well as a status symbol. The result was such devices as is depicted in, for example, Rich U.S. Pat. No. 4,707,014 in which a roof spoiler is provided with retractable lights. Rich later patented in his U.S. Pat. No. 4,787,665, a variation on the same theme.
Others later joined in the off road market feeding frenzy, such as McHugh in his U.S. Pat. No. 5,450,296, in which the entire light bar was rotated in and out of operative position. Mosher, in his U.S. Pat. No. 4,823,996 added to the existing art by rotating the lights, as well as the light bar. Stevens U.S. Pat. No. 5,481,441, and, once more, Rich in his U.S. Pat. No. 5,171,083, further refined the roof top light bar art.
Retractable head lights became a desirable accessory with the early Sting Ray line of Corvettes, and, later in other vehicles, General Motors used the same strategy by rotating headlights into and out of operative position, some by rotating them clockwise and others by rotation counterclockwise. Antrim U.S. Pat. No. 4,860,175 is an example of one such effort.
After WW II, auto manufacturers again concentrated on the domestic market and throughout the United States there were pockets of low visibility and fog that motorists would experience from time to time, typically without much warning as temperatures and dew points melded together. Riggs, in 1950, filed an application which issued into U.S. Pat. No. 2,662,605. He was one of the first to attempt to move fog lights into and out of the direction of movement of a vehicle and proposed that the light face upwardly in its retracted position.
Sumlin, in U.S. Pat. No. 4,769,746, a similar retractable lighting system was taught in which the light faced upwardly in its retracted position. In Hu U.S. Pat. No. 5,243,503 it was proposed that the lights slide left and right by means of a worm gear, so as to be hidden behind a license plate bracket when not in use.
Finally, in Tishman U.S. Pat. No. 4,482,939 the lights are moved into and out of an enclosure.
While these later referenced patents dance around the problem solved by the present invention, none have achieved any degree of commercial success, primarily because they do not pose a commercially acceptable solution.